Capitol veterans loved the story coming out of D.C. today about Gov. John Hickenlooper drinking fracking fluid because it reminded them of the time the state transportation director swilled a mixture of magnesium chloride.

The drinks were intended to show the stuff is safe.

CDOT Director Tom Norton drank his concoction in a legislative committee in 2002 after getting complaints about the magnesium chloride his trucks sprayed on Colorado’s roads all winter to fight ice and snow.

His admission came when he testified that states and not the federal government should lead in regulating natural gas production, a sentiment that angered environmentalists and drew applause from energy groups fighting the Environmental Protection Agency.

“You can drink it. We did drink it around the table, almost ritual like, in a funny way,” he told the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. “It was a demonstration. … they’ve invested millions of dollars in what is a benign fluid in every sense.”

Sen. Al Franken, Minnesota Democrat, found humor in the governor’s admission and asked if the experience was part of some bizarre occult practice.

“No, there were no religious overtures,” Mr. Hickenlooper responded to laughter, the Times reported.

As for the mag chloride, Norton is now Greeley’s mayor so maybe it wasn’t that safe after all. Here’s the story:

A TEPID TOAST TO A RELATIONSHIP ON THE ROCKS
DOT director raises his glass to road chemical, but it leaves bad taste in power officials’ mouths

By John Sanko
Rocky Mountain News

State Transportation Director Tom Norton took a couple of swigs Thursday of a mixture containing the magnesium chloride that his trucks have been spraying on Colorado’s roads all winter to fight ice and snow.

“It’s really not all that bad,” Norton told members of the Senate Government and Transportation Committee as he offered them a drink as well. “Really good stuff.”

No legislator seemed eager to join the state’s transportation chief, although two representatives of rural power companies, which aren’t as fond of magnesium chloride as Norton, took sips from the same beaker.

“We’ll drink to a solution,” said Richard Brinkley, general manager of regulated services for Holy Cross Energy in Glenwood Springs.

Brinkley and Troy Whitmore, director of external affairs for United Power in Brighton, didn’t disagree with Norton that magnesium chloride helped roads, but blamed it for power outages when it becomes airborne and gets on their lines and power poles.

Brinkley said magnesium chloride was responsible for 15 percent of the outages that his firm suffered last year and 25 percent this year.

Aspen has banned use of the material on its streets and has asked the state to stop using it on the highway that cuts through town. Other ski communities also have raised environmental questions.

Norton appeared before the committee to demonstrate the safety of the magnesium chloride that trucks have been spraying throughout the state all winter.

He didn’t drink the substance as it comes from the trucks, but with a mixture of water – 500 parts to 1 – which he said is the same proportion as the runoff onto property after a storm has hit. It’s much safer for the environment, vehicles and people than sand and salt, he said.

Norton said DOT would work with power companies to see if there really was a problem and, if so, how the impact could be reduced.

But he said there was no way Colorado could return to the old salt-and-sand mixture, which damaged cars and the environment and wasn’t as safe for the motoring public.

Norton said in 1998, CDOT used 1,233 tons of magnesium chloride and saved 41,000 tons of salt and sand.

can you say “conflict of interest”? If you would drink that stuff to make a point you must have a vested interest in those fracking companies. If it wasn’t directly effecting your wallet you wouldn’t go to that extreme.

Thomas Jameson

Come drink that green stuff that was spraying from the well at CR-15 and CR-74 near Windsor in Weld Country early this week. Then tell me it’s safe, you buffoon.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.